114 WESTERN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



some soil the same that is used for potting, and pressing- this 

 firmly around the roots, and watering- well. The plants 

 having been well hardened by exposure during- the day, and 

 the soil, by this time, being sufficiently warm, there should 

 be little or no check to the growth of the plant. The plants 

 should be staked at once after being transplanted, using 

 strong stakes about 3 to 3^ feet long, one or two stakes ac- 

 cording to the size of the plant. They must be tied up at 

 least once a week during the season of heaviest growth, other- 

 wise they are liable to be broken by the wind. They must be 

 watered over-head every day and given a feeding of strong 

 liquid manure two or three times a week. Some authorities 

 say that the entire border should be mulched with stable 

 manure, four inches thick, but I have found that mulching 

 the roots of each plant with some lawn scrapings does well 

 enough. 



The buds of the Dahlia grow in threes, like the Chrysan- 

 themum, a large one in the centre and small on either side, 

 on each shoot. If you want well developed flowers it is well 

 to nip off the two side buds, leaving the large centre one, and 

 in the case of medium growers it is better to thin out a good 

 many of the lateral shoots, but plants growing large flowers 

 not so much so. The beauty of the flower is estimated prin- 

 cipally by its perfectly circular shape without having any 

 petals projecting beyond the others. Should any disk show 

 in the centre of the flower, it is considered a great defect, 

 and to allow this centre part to develop, prize growers often 

 go to the trouble of placing a hood over the flower to keep 

 the sun's rays from the rest of the flower that this disk may 

 have time to grow. 



Dahlias can be grown in three rows in a border, and can 

 be ordered from the florist, as first, second or third row 

 plants, the front being a dwarf variety and the third row 

 reaching as high as four or five feet. 



There are endless varieties of dahlias, Messrs. Cannell 

 & Son, a firm in England, famous for their dahlias, showing 

 in their catalogue of 1897 more than 600 distinct varieties for 



